Dear Friends,

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL PROGRAM:

(01:17) Trump’s DC judicial appointee chooses truth over compliance – LISTEN
(18:20) “Cockroaches” create turmoil for India’s authoritarian ruler – LISTEN
(33:52) A look at this week’s primary election results – LISTEN
(50:15) August garden Q & A, with Kathy Byrnes – LISTEN

Last week, a story in Waging Nonviolence about India’s “cockroach” movement gave me hope that American democracy is not yet lost.
On May 15, the Chief Justice of India’s Supreme Court compared young activists to “cockroaches” and “parasites.” The next day, a student responded on X, “What if the cockroaches marched?”

So march they did. Protests of over 50,000 people! Social media platforms totaling 25 million followers! It launched a movement called the “Cockroach Junta Party.” Activists have done a heckuva job combining humor with astute political messaging, along with a list of specific demands.

The nationwide protests have shaken the authoritarian government of Narendra Modi. Already, one key government official has resigned.

From the Waging Nonviolence story: Over 100 protesters have since been arrested, despite assurances from the government that demonstrators would not be punished. 

When Delhi last saw a mass youth mobilization in 2020, the state answered by naming the organizers in a conspiracy chargesheet: Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam have now been held for more than five years under India’s 1967 anti-terror law and were refused bail again on July 4, 16 days before the cockroaches marched on Parliament.

This sounds eerily familiar. Like Modi, President Trump demonizes his perceived enemies, calling us “scum” and “vermin.”

Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, Stephen Miller, labeled protestors “left wing terrorists.”

Russell Vought, Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, has called for making the US as a Christian nation.

Similarly, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is a right-wing Hindu party and has gone to great lengths to stifle political opposition and dissent.

Yet now, collective nonviolent action has called out much of what’s wrong with Modi’s administration. Individual actions, too, have accomplished much in a short time.

Sonam Wangchuk

In late June, Sonam Wangchuk, a 59-year-old engineer, educator, and activist, went on a hunger strike. After 20 days of a fast that garnered broad support across India, police carried him from the protest site and took him to a hospital “for his own good.”

From the Waging Nonviolence article: Wangchuk had become the most recognizable face in a movement that insisted it had no leader. … After Wangchuk had been taken away, the square where he had been fasting filled with more protestors than had been there all month. Removing the hunger striker had doubled his audience.

Here’s a BBC interview with Sonam Wangchuk about his fast, the grievances of the Cockroach Party, and next steps for the movement.

After the resignation of the government official targeted by the movement, the Cockroach Junta Party posted “Cockroaches won. Democracy won.”

It’s high time to unleash the cockroaches in America. Indeed, they are already on the loose — organizing, resisting, fighting back against the onset of tyranny. We just need more of us. We need an infestation!

But really, for a US audience, the roach metaphor is kinda cringe-worthy. Throwing Trump’s words back at him doesn’t work well either. I mean, who wants to join the “Vermin Scum Party?”

I’m sure many of you have better ideas than this, but if we’re sticking with insect metaphors, how about the “Dung Beetle Party.” After all, we’ve got quite a mess to dig ourselves out of.